This resource is intended to be provide a comprehensive overview of what
is often a controversial topic, for scholarly and classroom use. Coverage is
intended to include extreme perspectives as well as more neutral or
consensus-seeking views. The list is extensive, with the hope that users will
be able to find a range of these items close to hand. While the main focus is
on North America, materials from around the world are noted whenever possible
(and certainly encouraged). Items are added as they come to my attention or
are contributed by others. Annotations are mine except as noted, and are NOT
intended to be incendiary. Comments and additions are most welcome!

This section documents what appear to be extreme cases where archaeological and scholarly ethics
are being violated usually in the name of profit and personal greed. Additional examples will be flagged
throughout the rest of this site, often as news articles in the Books & Articles Section.

KG and Ringy hit the beaches along Charleston, S.C. Hurricanes may be a nightmare for homeowners, but they are heaven-sent for treasure hunters. Storms far out at sea often churn up the shoreline, revealing all kinds of treasure, or juice, as they call it.

-
The National Geographic Society has announced they will work with the archaeological community to provide a more educated and ethical depiction of archaeology.

"Untold numbers of soldiers and their weapons remain buried across the vast landscape of World War Two.s Eastern Front. Three war diggers are racing against time to save this history from being looted or lost."

Yet the site provides no indication that the three 'diggers' are professionals or even qualified amateurs... witness this bio:

"No period of history is left untouched. Kris has dug up Iron Age relics, Roman coins and lots of WW2 / Battle of Britain artifacts, including regimental badges. It was only through metal detecting that Kris became obsessed about the history that surrounds all of us." (source)

- This letter of protest was sent on March 31st, 2014, to the National Geographic Society, National Geographic Channels and National Geographic Channel International by the presidents of six anthropological and archeological associations based in the United States and Europe, including the AAA. The effort was spearheaded by Jeff Altschul, President of the Society for American Archeology.

National Geographic Channel said Monday that it would "indefinitely" pull a planned television series on unearthing Nazi war graves after days of blistering criticism from archeologists and others who said the show handled the dead with macabre disrespect.

The channel said that after "consulting with colleagues" at the National Geographic Society, it would not broadcast the series, "Nazi War Diggers," in May as scheduled "while questions raised in recent days regarding accusations about the program can be properly reviewed." The show was to have been broadcast globally except in the United States.

National Geographic Channel International had commissioned four episodes of the show, in which two British metal detecting specialists, a Polish relics hunter, and an American, Craig Gottlieb, who deals in Nazi World War II artifacts, hunt for the graves of German and Red Army soldiers on the Eastern Front.

National Geographic Channel issued a statement Friday defending the show and saying the criticism was premature, based on early publicity materials that "did not provide important context about our team's methodology." The channel pulled those materials from its website.

- The show will feature "recovery expert" Rue Shumate and "battlefield historian" Bob Buttafuso and its description says:

"there are millions of historical relics buried in backyards just waiting to be discovered and turned into profit. 'American Digger' hopes to claim a piece of that pie as the series travels to a different city each week... searching for high-value artifacts and relics, some of which have been untouched for centuries. After pinpointing historical locations such as Civil War and Revolutionary War battlefields, Savage's first task is to convince reluctant homeowners to let his team dig up their property using state-of-the-art metal detectors and heavy-duty excavation equipment. The team will then sell any artifacts found for a substantial profit..."

- The description says: "Dig Wars follows 3 teams of America's best relic hunters, competing to find the most valuable artifacts at different historical locations across the country. The teams have from sunrise to sunset to hunt for artifacts . who will dig up the most valuable find?"

- The American Anthropological Association has protested this newest reality sh ow assault on our cultural heritage. President Mullings' letter (PDF) gives a detailed overview of the show and suggestions to rethink the show.s direction towards a productive and entertaining piece.

Archaeology Magazine
is a popular magazine which frequently has
useful articles. Especially see volume 44 number 3 for a series of
letters on looting, and their Archaeology Watch postings, which include
a series of topical archives such as: threats to cultural heritage, Hague Convention;
acquisition policies, UNESCO Convention, legal cases, underwater heritage, and a
variety of countries.

The Journal of Field Archaeology has a regular feature called
the "Antiquities Marketplace: News and Commentary on the Illicit Trade in
Antiquities".

Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) has regular editorials and letters
to its editor on relevant topics.

The Society for American Archaeology (SAA)
SAA Bulletin
has three regular columns of interest:
-
"Archaeopolitics" occasionally carries relevant items on policy &
polictics
-
"Working Together" carries articles about crossing the boundaries between
"professional" archaeology and other realms, such as partnerships with
Native Americans
-
"From the Ethics Committee" is a new feature starting in Vol 16, and will be
published three times a year by the Society for American Archaeology's Standing Committee on Ethics (see
below)

"River, Rocks, and Time" is a regular feature, a blog by Deb Twigg, Executive Director of the
Susquehanna River Archaeological Center of Native Indian Studies (SRAC). She regularly touches on the ethics of archaeology and the sale
of artifacts

IFAR Journal
(previously IFAR Reports)
with "articles on topics important to those in fine arts such as
authentification cases, legal problems, art thefts and recoveries, and
cultural property issues".

The Glyph, newsletter of the Archaeological Institute of
America San Diego Society, ran a special issue in September of 1997,
called "Pot-diggers: Property Rights, and Public Interest - A Debate"
with Jeff Meek: "Private Property Rights and the Value of Archaeological
Artifacts" and Robert J. Jeske: "Who Owns the Artifacts?" (listed below).

Common Ground,
published free by the National Park Service
Archaeology and Ethnography Program has a regular section entitled
"Site Watch: Protecting the Nation's Archaeological Heritage", as well as
occasional featured articles of interest; for example, the 1996, volume 1,
number 3/4, "Contested Waters" special issue on Underwater Archaeolog,
carried articles discussing preservation archaeology versus salvage, sport
diving, and looting.

Boston Globe
(see a link to their online version below). This
newspaper occasionally carries stories about scandals in the art & museum
community.

International Journal of Cultural Property
new journal from Cambridge University Press, "a vital international, and multidisciplinary forum for the broad spectrum of views surrounding cultural property, cultural heritage, and related issues. Its mission is to develop new ways of dealing with cultural property debates, to be a venue for the proposal or enumeration of pragmatic policy suggestions, and to be accessible to a wide audience of professionals, academics, and lay readers. This peer-reviewed journal publishes original research papers, case notes, documents of record, chronicles, conference reports, and book reviews."
[receive table of contents alerts via email]

Web Journal on Cultural Patrimony (ISSN 1827-8868)
Free online journal will address protection, the conservation and the
valorization of international cultural heritage (archaeology, art history,
law, architecture, archival and librarian property, etc.), tangible and
intangible. English, Italian, French or Spanish, with abstract in Italian and
English -- expect the first issue by May of 2006.

For a perspective from the side of the collectors,
see:

Indian-Artifact Magazine tends to carry editorials, letters, and
short articles which exemplify or state the collector's view.

Treasure Quest Magazine tends to carry editorials, letters, and
short articles which exemplify the salvor or collector's view.

- "Periodically, the question of where the surviving sculptures from the Parthenon should now be displayed becomes a subject of public discussion. This page provides key information for understanding the complex history of the Parthenon and its sculpture. The main arguments of the debate are also presented here. For another view, see the website of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture culture.gr." [Also see the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, online at http://www.parthenonuk.com/.]

- "A construction company has essentially destroyed one of Belize's largest Mayan pyramids with backhoes and bulldozers to extract crushed rock for a road-building project, authorities announced on Monday."

- "Hundreds of archaeological artefacts looted from Afghanistan have been handed over to the country's national museum during a ceremony in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Many of the 843 pieces were stolen during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s and ended up on the black market.... The British Museum in London has helped to complete their return. Some of the stolen artefacts were recovered by British border forces and police, while others were found in private collections and bought back by generous donors."

- "Alan Garcia, president of Peru, announced on Friday that Yale University has committed to return a collection of artifacts from Machu Picchu in early 2011 -- possibly ending years of negotiations and legal threats over the pieces, which were taken by a Yale team that excavated the area a century ago. Peru has long disputed Yale's assertions that the artifacts were taken legally...."

- "The ... artefacts... had been smuggled out of Iraq at various times and ended up in the US. They were moved back to Iraq in early 2009 but went missing after that. Antiquities Minister Qahtan al-Jubouri blamed "inappropriate handover procedures" for their disappearance."

- "Officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Wednesday returned to the Peruvian government 334 pre-Columbian artifacts that were seized in 2007 following an ICE-led investigation..."

- "The Iraqi antiquities department has taken delivery of 11 ancient ceremonial seals that were looted after the US-led invasion of the country in 2003. Originally from the national museum, the artefacts, some of which date from 3,000BC, were seized by US customs officials in the city of Philadelphia."

- discusses legal battles over the looting of a shipwreck, presumed to be the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes sunk in 1804 off Portugal -- suggests the treasure should really go back to Latin America

begins: " Deep-sea explorers said Friday they have hauled up what could be the richest sunken treasure ever discovered: hundreds of thousands of colonial-era silver and gold coins worth an estimated $500 million from a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean."

- presumed to be from a known 17th Century shipwreck that sank in international waters off England

- "An ancient Egyptian mummy thought to be that of Pharaoh Ramses I has returned home after more than 140 years in North American museums." (also briefly mentions Rosetta Stone in the British Museum and the bust of Nefertiti still in the Berlin Museum)

begins: "A leading Japanese archaeologist has admitted
planting artefacts at an excavation site so he
could claim credit for discovering his country's
oldest stoneware."

anonymous

2000 Watery Graves. The Economist. April 29.

- "When Turkey's Birecik dam begins filling up at the end of the month,
thousands of archaeological treasures are likely to be lost. Does anyone care?"
A new dam on the Euphrates will soon flood at least 82 sites, some dating back
at least to the Palaeolithic, as well as the nine villages, with thousands of
inhabitants.

- Controversy over rare 17th Century French and pirate shipwrecks off
Venezuela's Las Aves archipelago in the Caribbean. Treasure hunters have
obtained a government permit to salvage, but marine archaeologists protest.

- A short statement, "from the Senate Report No. 97-564 on Implementing
Legislation for the
Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import,
Export, and Transfer of Cultural Property

- "Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of the budget airline easyJet, is due to launch a one-man campaign to reunite the Elgin Marbles by taking out a series of full-page advertisements in national newspapers across Britain next week."

1990 Archaeology and looting make a volatile mix. Science
250:1074-1075.

- This raises ethical questions regarding use of date from looted sites
or commercial excavations. It is partly a critique of Donnan's National
Geographic publication on looted Moche material (listed below).

2009 The impact and significance of the statue of Ur-Ningirsen.
In "Return of Cultural Objects: The Athens Conference" MUSEUM International No.241-2

- repatriation of a Sumerian Statue

Association of Field Archaeology

n.d. (constitutional note) Journal of Field Archaeology inside cover.

- Publishers of Journal of Field Archaeology constitution and
bylaws (Article II) state their "opposition to the dealing and the illicit
traffic in such [looted] materials".

Atwood, Roger

2004 Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World.
St. Martin's Press

- Well-received, popular account of the looting of Moche royal tombs in Sipan, Peru. From Publisher's Weekly, "part detective story and part history lesson, Atwood, an expert on the antiquities market who writes for ARTnews and Archaeology, focuses on one incident as a case study of the insidious effects of the illicit antiquities trade"

Australian Archaeological Association

1994 Code of ethics of the Australian Archaeological Association.
Australian Archaeology 1994(39):129

- "...the [Chinese art] market is flooded with forgeries, often mass-produced, and has become a breeding ground for corruption, as business executives curry favor with officials by bribing them with art." The forgeries include fake historic relics as well as looted/stolen objects. The authors describe a series of modern centers that specialize in reproducing historic relics, including paintings, bronzes, pottery, and even carved jade.

- "An Islamic State video showed the militants smashing statues with sledgehammers inside the Mosul Museum, in northern Iraq, that showcases recent archaeological finds from the ancient Assyrian empire. The relics include items from the palace of King Sennacherib, who in the Byron poem .came down like the wolf on the fold. to destroy his enemies..."

Bass, George F.

1979 The men who stole the stars. Sea History 12:30-?.

- (This item may contain relevant information on archaeological
professionalism, but I have not yet been able to examine a copy.)

- From the 'Perspectives' section: "The following letter was written in
support of [US] federal legislation..."; the legislation was Senate Bill
1504 and H.R. 3194, and apparently was going to restrict private /
commercial access to shipwrecks. Bass notes a variety of collector /
"treasure-hunter"'s concerns, and archaeological views about them.

Bator, Paul M.

1996 The International Trade in Art, Second Edition. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.

- This was originally "An Essay on the International Trade in Art",
published in Stanford Law Review 1982 34(2). It defines illegal trade in
an international sense, and also discusses relevant factors such as preservation
of archaeological and national values, and the objects' own integrity.

- "Much of the sculpture that once enhanced the Parthenon in Athens was brought to London by Lord Elgin 200 years ago. Was this the act of a saviour or a vandal? Mary Beard looks at both sides of a fierce argument."

Belk, Roger

1988 Collectors and Collecting. Advances in Consumer Research 15:548-553. Reprinted in Interpreting Objects and Collections, edited by Susan M. Pearce, 1994, pp. 317-326. Routlege, London and New York.

- This short article warns of the loss of cultural context that occurs through looting and subsequent 'laundering' in museum collections, and then briefly reviews the book Chasing Aphrodite by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino.

- "A Cortez woman who was caught almost four years ago disturbing a San Juan National Forest archaeological site was sentenced to eight months in prison Wednesday for failing to comply with conditions of her probation.... Woosley was serving two years of probation for digging up nearly 1,000-year-old bones of an ancestral Puebloan who lived on the site sometime between 950 and 1075."

Bernbeck, R.

2008 The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia Near Eastern Archaeology 71(3): 189-?

- The Smithsonian is under fire for panning to display artifacts from a shipwreck, some of which may have been collected by looters. The "ancient shipwrecked vessel off the coast of Indonesia's Belitung Island... is one of the most significant shipwrecks to be found in modern times... the only shipwreck to date that we have found which has direct archaeological evidence of trade between the Arab world and the Chinese world...". The museum's ethics policy prohibits knowingly exhibiting artifacts stolen or removed from commercially exploited sites.

Bleed, Peter

2000 Purveying the Past: Structure and Strategy in the American Antiques
Trade. Plains Anthropologist 45(172):179-88.

- Study of the antiques trade in Lincoln, Nebraska, reveals four stage
marketing channel (surfacing, picking, dealing, and matchmaking), each adding
different kinds of value to objects and operating with distinctive strategies.

- "From the 1960s until his death in 2007, collectibles dealer John Sisto amassed the largest private collection of manuscripts, ancient books, artifacts and antiquities in his suburban Chicago home. Trouble is, much of it was stolen..."

Bohlen, Celestine

2002 Dealer Is Guilty of Selling Stolen Egyptian Art. New York Times
(February 13) Online: article

- from the publisher... "riveting account of Colonel Matthew Bogdanos and his team\222s extraordinary efforts to recover over 5,000 pricel
ess antiquities stolen from the Iraqi National Museum after the American invasion of Baghdad"

- "Marine Corps Reserve colonel, lawyer and student of ancient civilizations, returned to uniform full-time to head counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and later in Iraq, where Bogdanos gave himself the mission of finding antiquities that had been stolen from the Iraq National Museum during the American invasion." (from Amazon.com)

Bouchenaki, Mounir

2009 Return and restitution of cultural property in the wake of the 1970 Convention.
In "Return of Cultural Objects: The Athens Conference" MUSEUM International No.241-2

- John J. Santo, the most prolific (known) looter of Petersburg's National Battlefield Park in Virginia has been sentenced on two counts of damaging archaeological resources and one count of pillaging. He stole "more than 18,000 bullets, 68 fuses, 31 cannonballs and shells, 13 buckles, seven breastplates, five saber tips and 91 buttons over 1,014 days", and his own diary helped in his conviction.

Brent, Michael

1994 The rape of Mali. Archaeology 47(3):26-31,35.

- This item describes how "European collectors and dealers have
systematically plundered the heritage of one of the world's poorest
countries...".

- A new report, "...provides an overview of the illicit trade in
archaeological, ethnographic and palaeontological material, and the damage
it causes, and makes recommendations for museums to protect them from buying
illicit material, and for Her Majesty's Government to help stamp the trade out."
(more
details are available online.

Brodie, Neil et al.

2006: Archaeology, Cultural Heritage and the Antiquities Trade, University Prsss of Florida

2001: Trade in Illicit Antiquities: The Destruction of the World's Archaeological Heritage, Cambridge

-

Brown, James A.

1966 Spiro Studies vol 1: Description of the Mound Group. University of Oklahoma Research Institute, Norman.

- includes info on 1930s looting of famous site

Brown, Patricia Leigh

1999 New Orleans Grave Theft: Nothing's Sacred. New York Times
Tuesday February 16, 1999: A1,16.

- Brown notes a growing problem in recent years, the theft of grave
goods from modern cemetaries in the United States. Funerary statuary have
been vanishing especially from New Orleans graveyards and ending up for sale
in antique stores as far away as New York City and Los Angeles.

- "An intensifying federal investigation into the sale of Native American artifacts has brought fear and uncertainty to one of the nation's largest and longest-running Indian artifact shows. Wealthy collectors are more cautious about buying artifacts for fear of criminal liability, and reputable dealers say they're working double-time to prove their legitimacy after being wrongly lumped together with looters and gravediggers."

- "...The tribe’s quest to reclaim their ancestors began seven years ago, when Chief Jacks’s wife, Cora Jacks, found documents and papers relaying the life story of a 19th- and early 20th-century archaeologist, Harlan Ingersoll Smith. Ms. Jacks said she learned that Mr. Smith had robbed the graves of Tseycum ancestors, who were buried on Vancouver Island under giant boulders, and sold them to major American museums, and most likely others worldwide."

Burnham, Bonnie

1978 Art Theft: Its Scope, Its Impact, and Its Control.
International Foundation for Art Research, Inc., New York.

- From Laura Pope Robbins:
"This report resulted from a feasibility study done on the creation of a central
art theft archive as a means of combating art theft. It is meant to be an
analysis on whether a clearinghouse of information on stolen art objects would
be an effective weapon against art theft, and an evaluation on the reception of
such a clearinghouse by the law enforcement community as well as the art
community. References are footnoted on a chapter-by-chapter basis and the full
citations are included in a separate chapter. There are five appendices which
include, art theft statistics, list of important worldwide art thefts: 1975 -
1977, museum surveys, art dealer surveys, and IFAR program information.
There is no index."

Butt, Shafiq

1998 Stealing A Civilization. Peshawar Diplomat 8(6)

- This describes the theft of Gandhara antiquities in Pakistan.

Byron, Lord George Gordon

1812 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto Two, xii and xii

- This famous passage refers to the looting of the Elgin Marbles:
"... the last poor plunder from a bleeding land." Byron witnessed the
damage being done to the Parthenon by Lord Elgin's workers while on
holiday in Athens in 1809. The phrase "felt some portion" refers to some
Greek workmen who dropped their loads because they felt them moving.

"But most the modern Pict's ignoble boast,
To rive what Goth, and Turk and Time hath spared;
Cold as the crags upon his native coast,
His mind as barren and his heart as hard,
Is he conceived, whose hand prepared,
Aught to displace Athena's poor remains;
Her sons too weak the sacred shrine to guard,
Yet felt some portion of their mother's pains,
And never knew til then the weight of Despot's chains."

Byron, Lord George Gordon

1818 the Curse of Minerva

- This work apparently has 18 stanzas of rage against Lord Elgin's
looting of Parthenon marble scupltures. A sample follows:

"Daughter of Jove! In Britain's injur'd name,
A true-born Briton may the deed disclaim,
Frown not on England -- England owns him not;
Athena! No -- the plunderer was a Scot."

1995 A Survey of State Statutes Protecting Archeological Resources.
Archeological Assistance Study No. 3. National Park Service Archeological
Assistance Division, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

- Robert Hicks
"While this book is not aimed at law enforcers, it's the
best state-by-state examination of archeological protection laws and includes
criminal ones. Call NPS at 202-343-4101 to find out about availability of
copies. Sells for around $5 each."

- The abstract:
"The allocation of archaeological resources in Europe has gradually shifted from state control to groups made up of developers, planners, community taxpayers and academics that debate the fate of archaeological sites. This trend has encouraged the development of a definition of archaeological value to help archaeologists champion their cause. The definition is aimed at promoting the archaeological resource as a research asset that should be stored as deposits rather than monuments."

- Contains a review essay, annotated bibliography, background on the AAA
ethics committee, and a series of case scenarios.

Ceram, C.W. (editor)

1966 The World of Archaeology: The Pioneers Tell Their Own Story.
Thames and Hudson, London. (republished as Hands on the Past: Pioneer
Archaeologists Tell Their Own Story. by Alfred A. Knopf, New York.).

- Laura Pope Robbins:
"An anthology meant to give as complete a survey as possible of the adventurous
spirit of archaeology. Extracts, taken directly from the writings of known
archaeologists, were chosen on the basis of what was interesting, however, when
combined, the extracts give a view of the whole scope of archaeological
discovery. Its purpose is not to be comprehensive, but to provide an overview
of the scope of archaeological research, showing both the misdirections and the
systematic. Extracts pertinent to the study of antiquities theft are "How to
Steal Antiquities" and "Legalized Art Robbery."

Champe, J.L., D.S. Byers, C. Evans, et al.

1961 Four statements for archaeology. American Antiquity
27:137-139.

- Here archaeologists emphasise the importance of publishing their research.

2009 Cultural objects in cultural context: the contribution of academic institutions.
In "Return of Cultural Objects: The Athens Conference" MUSEUM International No.241-2

-

Chase, Arlen F., Diane Z. Chase, Harriot W. Topsey

1988 Archaeology and the ethics of collecting. Archaeology
41(1):56-60,87.

- This is an "essay" discussing the ethics of the collection of looted
objects from an archaeological perspective.

Cheek, Annetta L. and Bennie C. Keel

1984 Value Conflicts in Osteo-Archaeology. In Ethics and Values in Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp. 194-207. New York: The Free Press.

- This chapter discusses the responsibilities of archaeologists to the
public.

Childs, Craig

2009 The Southwest's Good Ol' Artifact Boys LA Times June 15, 2009.

- op-ed "The federal action laid bare a little known culture of ordinary citizens who collect and sell human history." describing the conviction of habitual looters and pot hunters in the US Southwest (including James Redd and Steven Shrader who later both committed suicide in jail).

Chippindale, Christopher

1995 Commercialization: the role of archaeological
laboratories and collectors. In Ethics in American Archaeology:
Challenges for the 1990's, edited by M.J. Lynott and A. Wylie,
pp. 80-83. Special Report. Society for American Archaeology,
Washington, D.C.

- The author notes how analysis by archaeologists and laboratories can
elevate the commercial value of cultural artifacts.

- "The Bureau of Land Management is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for looting archaeological sites on public lands near Dillon.... The BLM has ramped up its monitoring of such sites on public lands following a looting in August 2013 in Beaverhead County. In that case, a ranger came upon several people in the act of stealing projectile points and stone tools."

Clément, Étienne

1995 A view from UNESCO
African Arts 28(4):58.

- This is a discussion about the looting of Mali's cultural artifacts.

Clements, Forrest E.

1945 Historical Sketch of the Spiro Mound. Contributions of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation 14:48-68. New York.

- This article presents the 'other side' view from many academics, that "Since the 1970s, we are increasingly following another system of governance that is systematically destroying the very principle [property rights] that has made America the greatest nation in the history of the world."

Coggins, Clemency C.

1995 Illicit international traffic in ancient art: let there be light!
International Journal of Cultural Property 4(1): 61-79.

- "Ankara accused of blackmailing museums into returning artefacts while allowing excavation sites to be destroyed."

Converse, Robert N.

1992 Editorial Central States Archaeological Journal 39(3):111 %& 114

comments on professionalism and collecting, reprinted from Ohio Archaeologist 42(1)

Cook, B.F.

1991 The archaeologist and the art market: policies and practice.
Antiquity 64:533-537.

- The abstract:
"The Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum sets out his view of where responsible museums and researchers should find a balance in the difficult matter of unprovenanced antiquities thay may be the spoils of recent looting."

1984 Approaches to Ethical Problems by Archaeological Organizations. In Ethics and Values in Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp. 13-21. New York: The Free Press.

- This provides some background information from the perspective of
archaeological organizations to the ethics question.

Davis, Richard H.

1993 Indian art objects as loot.
The Journal of Asian Studies 52(1):22-49

- Scholars seldom appreciate that museum objects looted
from (Asian) cultures have a variety of semiological meanings,
political (power to those who took them and subservience to
their original owners) and religious.

De Angelo, G.

1992 Avocational archaeology in New York State.
The Bulletin, Journal of the NYSAA 104:28-30.

- This article notes the strong role avocationalists have played in New York
State's archaeology.

De Angelo, G.

1996 Archaeology in the Future: the Role of the
Avocational. In A Golden Chronograph for Robert E. Funk
edited by C. Lindner and E.V. Curtin, pp. 45-48. Occasional
Papers in Northeastern Anthropology No. 15. Arcaheological
Services, Bethlehem, CT

- This work describes the role avocationalists could play in the future of
archaeology.

- This is a very controversial publication about Moche
artifacts, representing Donnan's work in a frequently looted region, on
previously looted as well as unlooted tombs often full of extremely
valuable artifacts. Critics feel he is adding context and thus value to the
art dealers and collectors plunder.

- Comprehensive coverage of information about Afghan looting, including a list of artifacts among the stolen or imperiled treasures of the National Museum in Kabul, and a map of archaeological sites whose artifacts formed the collections.

Dyson, Stephen L.

1997 Archaeology De Damned. Archaeology 50(1):6

- In this editorial, the president of the Archaeological Institute of
America notes the relationship between archaeologists and major dam
projects which threaten cultural heritage sites..

- "Since 2006, more than 100 statues, bronzes, vases, mosaics and other works have left public collections in the United States...." Museums state their motive is to shore up relations with these countries, to encourage continued sharing of antiquities and access to archaeoogical research sites. The museums also claim these restitutions help to prevent antiquities thefts but there is no indication that is true. Interestingly, few of these returns is based on legal action, instead they are frequently pre-emptive tactics, well in advance of any court case, and the visibility of the restitutions has actually encouraged more claims by foreign governments, as well as invocation of mutual legal assistance treaties with the U.S. where American custom officials and federal prosecutors pursue objects in American museums even without a formal legal ruling.

Early, Ann M.

1989 Profiteers and Public Archaeology: Antiquities Trafficking
in Arkansas. In The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property:
Whose Culture? Whose Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger,
pp.39-50. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

- This piece includes some case studies from the "victim's perspectives"
of looting.

- "Robert Edsel is talking about the Monuments Men on Travel With Rick Steves radio program this weekend. He is chatting with an original Monuments Men, Harry Ettlinger, a German-born Jew whose family escaped to America and now helps repatriate the treasures of Europe from caves and castles where plunder was stashed."

- Briefly describes an episode of a new cable television show "American Digger" on SpikeTV. "Savage and Spike TV declined to say where they were able to dig, other than that it was private property. City of St. Augustine Archaeologist Carl Halbirt called the digging 'almost like sacrilege" and "like a thief of time". Host and former wrestler Ric "Savage said he takes a few moments to appreciate whatever is found, then sells it to local antique shops".

1995 "A Comment." In Ethics in American Archaeology: Challenges
for the 1990s, edited by Mark J. Lynott and Alison Wylie, pp. 77-79.
Society for American Archaeology Special Report, Washington, D.C.

- This is a short comment on archaeological ethics.

1995 Coin Funds Collapse. Archaeology 48(1):16.

- This is a discussion of coins as collected artifacts.

1994 The world cannot afford many more collectors with a
passion for antiquities. The Art Newspaper 41:19-20.

- This notes that that the cultural heritage of many countries is being
permanently lost due to looting.

1994 A Corruption of the Record. Archaeology
47(3):24-25.

- The Getty Kouros Colloquium was conducted to verify the
authenticity and prevent scandal over the $9 million purchase of a
(forged) artifact. No conclusions were reached, nor did it reveal how
the marble kouros was purchased from looters.

1993 Ricardo Elia responds.
Archaeology 46(3):17

- This piece was written in response to a response by Colin Renfrew
in Archaeology 1993 46(3):16-18. (Elia's paper which began the debate
was reprinted - see Elia 1996 below.)

1992 U.S. v. Mel Fisher. Archaeology 45(6):26-27.

- A short description of the trial of an infamous collector and looter.

1992 The ethics of collaboration: archaeologists and the
Whydah Project. Historical Archaeology 24(2):105-117.

- Elia brings up ethical questions regarding use of date from looted
sites or commercial excavations.

1991 Popular archaeology and the antiquities market: a review
essay. Journal of Field Archaeology 18:95-103.

- Elia discusses Minerva: the International Review of Ancient
Art and Archaeology, a glossy "new", British, popular journal
that covers art and artifacts, but appears to blend the lines between
art history, archaeology, and art collecting, and carries many ads
for artifacts....

1991 U.S. Bans Import of Artifacts from Peten, Guatemala.
Society for American Archaeology Bulletin 9(5):2.

- A short piece describing this important step at reducing looting
in Central America.

1991 New York Gallery Sued. Archaeology 44(6):20-21.

- Elia describes how an important gallery was sued for selling looted
artifacts.

1990 Crackdown on Smuggling. Archaeology 43(5):14.

- A brief article on attempts at limiting the smuggling of cultural
artifacts.

2008 A Survey of the Material and Intellectual Consequences of Trading in Undocumented Ancient Coins: A Case Study on the North American Trade. Frankfurter elektronische Rundschau zur Altertumskunde 7: 1-13. Available online: http://s145739614.online.de/fera/ausgabe7/Elkins.pdf.

- editorial blog and associated comments: "Museums are beginning to understand the issues and concerns and are increasingly taking steps to avoid dealing in illicitly excavated and traded antiquities. However, there are still some holdouts from that community who have argued against efforts designed to protect archaeological sites and the destruction of information for commercial profit."

Ellis, H. Holmes

1940 A Study of the Oklahoma Eccentric Flints. Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly 49(2):120-127.

- "Parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are up for sale - in tiny pieces. Nearly 70 years after the discovery of the world's oldest biblical manuscripts, the Palestinian family who originally sold them to scholars and institutions is now quietly marketing the leftovers - fragments the family says it has kept in a Swiss safe deposit box all these years...."

Ewing, Douglas C.

1989 What is "Stolen"? The McClain Case Revisited. In The
Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose
Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger, pp.177-184.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

- This article discusses different perceptions and conditions on cultural
property regulations.

Eyster, J.

1995 United States v. Pre-Columbian Artifacts and the Republic of Guatemala.
International Journal of Cultural Property 5(1)

- Abstract:
"Archaeologists have contributed to the problem of looting by emphasizing research, excavation and publication at the expense of conservation and ethical issues. Archaeologists need to examine their own priorities if they are to provide leadership in changing public attitudes toward looting of archaeological sites. Research is needed into the psychology of collecting and looting to develop strategies for archaeological resource conservation."

Fagan, Brian M.

1995 Archaeology's dirty secret. Archaeology
48(4):14-17.

- Fagan notes how archaeologists frequently fail to publish their research
and equates this failure to looting.

Fagan, Brian M.

1995 Enlightened stewardship. Archaeology 48(3):12-13,77.

- Fagan describes the problem of protecting archaeological sites on
private land in the US and a successful solution by the Archaeological
Conservancy (link below).

Falgayrettes-Leveau, Christiane and Michel Leveau

1995 Dogon art at the Musée Dapper: The last reunion?
African Arts 28(4):80-83,112.

- This article is about the looting of Mali's cultural artifacts and their
display in museums.

- British Archaeology review: "the definitive account of the desperate, avoidable cultural tragedy of Iraq..." and from the publisher: "This book provides an historical statement as of 1st March 2006 concerning the destruction of the cultural heritage in Iraq. In a series of chapters it outlines the personal stories of a number of individuals who were - and in most cases continue to be - involved. These individuals are involved at all levels, and come from various points along the political spectrum, giving a rounded and balanced perspective so easily lost in single authored reports. It also provides the first views written by Iraqis on the situation of archaeology in Iraq under Saddam and an overview and contextualisation of the issues surrounding the looting, theft and destruction of the archaeological sites, the Iraqi National museum and the libraries in Baghdad since the war was launched in 2003"

- The authors report that True is the first curator to be indicted for dealing in stolen antiquities. The morale: it is better to display borrowed treasures on loan from other countries than to own them outright.

1984 Archaeological Ethics and Values in a Tribal Cultural Resource Management Program at the Pueblo of Zuni. In Ethics and Values in Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp.224-235. New York: The Free Press.

- review essay on the 2007 Chinese documentary film Cutting through the fog of history: The re-appearance of the Yangshao cultural relics, but also a commentary on the "complex issue of why there is NO mourning in China of the lost artefacts from the very first scientific excavations of the Neolithic in China, which includes some fabulous items ("national" treasures??)..." [Fiskesjo]

- "...when asked if ancient tombs... should be opened or not, the first answer has to be that it is a question that only the Chinese can answer. But China's cultural heritage is not just a matter for China. It is also world heritage.

2006 Chinese collections outside China: Problems and hopes. (Revised from an invited inaugural lecture for the International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology, University College London, March 2005.) Public Archaeology [London] 5.2 (2006), 111.26.

2004 The China Connection: The Cross-Continental
Ethics of Johan Gunnar Andersson and the Making of the Museum of Far Eastern
Antiquities. In H\345kan Karlsson (ed.) Swedish Archaeologists on Ethics.
Lindome: Bricoleur Press, 179-96.

- "Not only is Syria's future at stake as the civil war rages on, but now also its past. The black market flourishing in the conflict now sees relics - some as ancient as 1,200 years - traded by rebels for AK-47s."

- "This question has been a hot topic in underwater archaeology during recent years, especially with the blurring of the lines between science and industry and archaeology and marine salvage. However, until this past week I had largely stayed out of the fray, partially out of the naïve assumption that in most cases any right-minded individual could distinguish scholarly archaeological research from goodie-grabbing treasure hunting. I was wrong..."

Ford, Richard L.

1984 Ethics and the Museum Archaeologist. In Ethics and Values in Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp.133-142. New York: The Free Press.

- Ford describes archaeologists' responsibilities to the profession.

Fowler, Don D.

1984 Ethics in Contract Archaeology. In Ethics and Values in Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp. 108-116. New York: The Free Press.

- From the author
<DSFrink@aol.com>:
"(The) paper presents a public educational program for elementary schools using
actual archaeological sites located on school land. The results of providing
access and use of these resources to the community changes public perceptions
toward conservation and protection and away from more destructive persuits of
curriosity."

Frison, George C.

1984 Avocational Archaeology: Its Past, Present, and Future. In Ethics
and Values in Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp. 184-193. New
York: The Free Press.

- Frison describes archaeologists' responsibilities to the public.

Frison, George, and Bruce Bradley

1999 The Fenn Cache Clovis Weapons and Tools. One Horse Land and Cattle Company, Santa Fe.

- "Archaeological sites around the
Mediterranean and elsewhere are suffering major damage due to
systematic and illicit excavations in order to supply the needs of the
antiquities market. This activity in turn feeds the appetites of the
museums and the private collectors who are willing to buy."
"Dr Gill's response follows on from the issues raised by Dr.
McClellan, 'Publishing Unprovenanced Artifacts' and the response
by Dr Hamma of the J. Paul Getty Museum in *EA* 2, 1 - June 1994."

Gorall, former president of the New York State Archaeological
Association, describes the role avocationalists play in archaeology.

Gorvy, Brett

1991 To catch a thief. Antique Collector (UK) 62(9):68-71.

- From Laura Pope Robbins:
"The motives behind art theft are examined by the author. The article includes
statistics that show art theft is on the rise and notes the difficulty in
recovering stolen art works and convicting the criminals. Preventing and
combatting art theft is also discussed."

1968 Looters rob graves and history. National Geographic 169(4): 452-461

Gramly, Richard Michael

1996 What is Looting? Indian-Artifact Magazine 15(1):53.

- From the perspective from an archaeologist who actively works with
collectors, this letter/editorial condemns use of "looting" as improperly
applied by 'professional' archaeologists and suggests they should be
educating instead of name-calling.

- Green describes the responsibilities of archaeologists to the profession.

Green, Ernestene L. (editor)

1984 Ethics and Values in Archaeology. New York: The Free Press.

- This book has copies of the Society of Professional Archaeologists Code
of Ethics & Standards of Research Performance; Society for American
Archaeology Ethics for Archaeology; and American Anthropological Association
Statements on Ethics. The enclosed chapters address the background to the
ethics question,
responsibilities of archaeologists to the public, and to the profession.

Greenfield, Jeanette

1996 The Return of Cultural Treasures, Second Edition. CUP,
Cambridge.

- The author discusses historical, legal, and political issues surrounding
cases of stolen art treasures (e.g. "Elgin Marbles", treasures held by Russia),
paleontological objects, and cultural objects (e.g. Icelandic manuscripts,
Mesoamerican artifacts, Hebrew Manuscripts in the Vatica, Dead Sea Scrolls).
She mentions infamous "collectors" such as Aurel Stein and André Malraux.
There are many illustrations and a large bibliography.

1991 "State Secrets": the protection and management of
archaeological site information in Michigan. In Ethics
and Professional Anthropology, edited by C. Fluehr-Lobban,
pp. 115-119. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

- This item notes how the publishing of archaeological site locations in
reports puts them at risk from collectors and looters.

Hamilton, C.E.

1995 A cautionary perspective. In Ethics in American
Archaeology: Challenges for the 1990's, edited by M.J.
Lynott and A. Wylie, pp. 57-63. Special Report. Society for
American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

- Hamilton stresses the value of archaeological information over the
artifacts themselves (e.g. let commercial excavators sell or
keep the artifacts after the information is recorded).

- Briefly describes the "unprecedented rash of looting is following in the wake of construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the middle reaches of China's Yangtze River"

1991 The looting of Arkansas. Archaeology 44(3):22-31.

- The increased value of antiquities has lead to looting of more
archaeological sites.

Harris, Leo J.

1989 From the Collector's Perspective: The Legality of Importing
Pre-Columbian Art and Artifacts. In The Ethics of Collecting
Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose Property? edited by
Phyllis Mauch Messenger, pp.155-176. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press.

- Harris provides perceptions and conditions on cultural property
regulations from the perspective of a collector.

Hastorf, C. and I. Hodder

1991 Archaeology and the other. Anthropology UCLA 18(1):1-11.

- (This item may contain relevant information on archaeological
professionalism, but I have not yet been able to examine a copy.)

1984 The antiquities market: news and commentary on the illicit
trade in antiquities. Journal of Field Archaeology 11(4): 421-430.

- Herscher comments on current trends in the stolen antiquities market.

Herscher, Ellen

1989 International Control Efforts: Are There Any Good Solutions?
In The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose
Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger, pp.117-128.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

- "The purpose of this article is to acquaint archaeologists with highlights
from three years of the program, discuss the nature and extent of archaeological
looting in Virginia, and meditate on the future. Although the time crime program
has proceeded in directions quite unanticipated three years ago, the most
persistent problems or questions raised by law-enforcement officers concern
human burials."

- At the Dahshour necropolis, a United Nations World Heritage Site, "brazen looting" and a modern encroaching cemetery "reflect Egypt's lawlessness and political unrest since its 2011 revolution". The story includes a slideshow.

Hingston, Ann Guthrie

1989 U.S. Implementation of the UNESCO Cultural Property Convention.
In The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose
Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger, pp.129-148. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press.

- Hoopes describes the experiences of University of Calgary archaeologist
Peter Mathews' encounter with looters while trying to save a Mayan alter in
Chiapas.

Hosty, Kieran

1995 A matter of ethics: shipwrecks, salvage, archaeology and museums.
Bulletin of the Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology
19(1):33-36.

- Museums like to produce "blockbuster" exhibitions to attract large
crowds for much-needed revenue, but these may bring them in "direct conflict
with established archaeological principles and museum ethics..." (p.33). The
articles describes the Australian National Maritime Museum's 1995 RMS
Titanic Exhibition, apparently including artifacts looted from the wreck.

- Christopher Hitchens, writer for Vanity Fair, interviewed about the new Parthenon Museum and especially the Elgin Marbles. (Italy, the Vatican, and a museum in Heidelberg have all returned Parthenon sculptures. The British Museum refuses to return their collection.)

- "...The relics, known as the Parthenon or Elgin Marbles, have remained a controversial part of the British Museum's collection since 1816. Debate continues over the legality of Elgin's actions and whether the Marbles should be returned to Greece. That controversy continues with the opening of a new museum in Athens. The Acropolis Museum has created a display that shows how the sculptures would have looked on the Parthenon itself. Plaster casts fill the spaces where the Elgin Marbles will be if they are returned by the British."

Isler-Kerenyi, Cornelia

1994 Are collectors the real looters? Antiquity 68(259):350-2

- The illicit trade in archeological artifacts is the result
of individual collectors and museums. The author suggests putting all of the
great monies collectors currently use to purchase objects into care and study
of objects (ideally in situ), and training of archaeologists and
conservationists (this is a "note" which adds to the feud between Elia (1993
& 1996) and Renfrew (1993) above).

2005 War and Cultural Heritage: Cyprus after the 1974 Turkish Invasion. Minnesota Mediterranean and East European Monographs 14. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Modern Greek Studies, University of Minnesota. 92pp. ISBN: 1057-3941

- "The book, whose introduction of 11 pages is exclusively on the looting of Iraq after the 2003 invasion, is now going through a second edition and will appear in May 2006." [T.G. Stavrou]

Jelks, E.B.

1995 Professionalism and the Society of Professional
Archaeologists. In Ethics in American Archaeology: Challenges for the 1990's, edited by M.J. Lynott and A. Wylie, pp. 14-16. Special Report. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

- Jelks mentions the desire for standards which led to founding of SOPA.

- This is part of the "Pot-diggers: Property Rights, and Public
Interest - A Debate" along with Jeff Meek: "Private Property Rights and
the Value of Archaeological Artifacts". Jeske addresses the issue of
property rights from the archaeological
(and government/societal) standpoint, that they are only rights
as dictated by the state, and stand in the way of the protection
of cultural heritage.

- "...As an undercover federal source in a years-long investigation into the shadowy world of the excavation and trading of ancient American Indian art and artifacts in the Southwest, [Ted Gardiner] was at the center of a sprawling criminal case unfolding in federal court here and in Colorado. On Monday, federal prosecutors said at a hearing that the cases would go on."

- There are larger threats to our heritage than just intentional pilfering.
"The consequences of energy exploration for wildlife and air quality have long been contentious in unspoiled corners of the West. But now with the urgent push for even more energy, there are new worries that history and prehistory — much of it still unexplored or unknown — could be lost."

- "Extreme Islamist movements across the world have developed a reputation for the destruction of historic artifacts, monuments and buildings.... To many in the West, such actions are simply wanton vandalism. However, experts say the thinking behind it is actually part of a wider tradition of rooting out idol-worship and superstition found in Christianity and Judaism as well as Islam."

- He begins "The British Museum must hold its ground. And I think people should shut up and look at the art, instead of turning it into a trite talking point." Followed with responses by others. [Elgin Marbles]

Jones, Mark

1990 Fake? The Art of Deception. Trustees of the British Museum, London.

- Kaiser provides four case studies on looted/stolen artifacts,
including Sipan Moche, the Cyprus mosaics, the Icklingham bronzes, and the
Mexico City National Museum of Anthropology break-in.

Kaiser, T.

1991 The thieves of time and their accomplices. Journal of
Field Archaeology 18:87-89.

- Kaiser describes thefts from Greek museums.

Karlsson, Håkan (ed.)

2004 Swedish Archaeologists on Ethics. Lindome: Bricoleur Press

- eighteen papers demonstrating Swedish views on the moral/ethical issues in
contemporary archaeology that are not always in alignment with the UK or USA; only the papers by Lunden and Fiskesjö specifically address looting

- due to repeat looting and vandalism, two caves in Utah are now
fenced to limit access, but looting continues

Kimmelman, Michael

2009 When Ancient Artifacts Become Political Pawns. NY Times October 23, 2009. Online: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/arts/design/24abroad.html

- "...Over the years Egypt has occasionally made a bid for Nefertiti, when the political climate is ripe. Germans point out that Ludwig Borchardt, who discovered Nefertiti at Tel el Amarna in 1912, had Egyptian approval to take it to Berlin. Just the other day, Iraq repeated its demand that Germany return the Gate of Ishtar from the ancient city of Babylon, excavated and shipped to Berlin before World War I."

King, Jaime Lituak

1989 Cultural Property and National Sovereignty. In The
Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose
Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger, pp.199-208.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

- Perceptions and conditions on cultural property regulations
are described.

- changes to the US Advisory Council on Historic Preservation regulations,
removal of the "research exception", where an agency could destroy a site if
it was valueable only for its research potential

King, Thomas F.

1991 "Some dimensions of the pothunting problem" in
Protecting the Past edited by George S. Smith and John E.
Ehrenhard. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.

- (This item may contain relevant information on looting,
but I have not yet been able to examine a copy.)

King, T.F.

1985 The Whiddah and the ethics of cooperating with
pothunters: a view. SOPA Newsletter 9(3-4):1-3.

- King stresses the value of archaeological information over the
artifacts themselves (e.g. let commercial excavators sell or
keep the artifacts after the information is recorded). There is a
rebuttal by W.B. Lees and subsequent discussion in SOPA News 9(6)
and 15(8-9) (can anyone get me a copy of these...??).

King, T.F.

1985 Sheep don't take very good care of themselves: a
response to Lees. SOPA Newsletter 9(6):4-8.

- King stresses the value of archaeological information over the
artifacts themselves (e.g. let commercial excavators sell or
keep the artifacts after the information is recorded).

- "Spanish police have arrested a couple accused of illegally trafficking a "priceless" haul of artefacts from Latin America for resale in Europe.... It is alleged that the historic treasures were plundered from archaeological sites - mostly in Peru and Ecuador - and then sold on to the couple through middlemen in Colombia.... The confiscated artefacts are due to be analysed at a museum in Madrid, and will later be returned to their countries of origin."

- "The states of Ohio and Kentucky are battling over a most unlikely object: a graffiti-covered rock. ...first written about in an archeological publication in 1847..." [called "Indian Head Rock"; also see Gary Slapper article]

- "...the Egyptian Museum and the priceless, cultural treasures it contains have been in alarmingly close proximity to troubles in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Following an inventory, Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass has now confirmed for the first time that artefacts were stolen during a break-in on 28 January." and other museums were also targeted (the Coptic Museum in old Cairo and the Royal Jewellery Museum in Alexandria, open-air museum in Memphis, etc.)

- "Later this month Egyptian archaeologists will travel to the Louvre Museum in Paris to collect five ancient fresco fragments stolen from a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in the 1980s, but there are many other "stolen" antiquities which they also want back." Other objects include: the Rosetta Stone (British Museum), a bust of Queen Nefertiti and a statue of Great Pyramid architect Hemiunu (Neues Museum in Berlin), the bust of Chepren Pyramid builder Anchhaf (Boston Museum of Fine Arts), and a painted Zodiac from the Dendera temple (Louvre). "If they cannot be returned permanently, Mr Hawass would at least like them back on loan for the opening of Egypt's Grand Museum at Giza, due by 2013. So far there have been mostly cautious responses."

Knudson, Ruthann

1984 Ethical Decision Making and Participation in the Politics of Archaeology. In Ethics and Values in Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp. 243-263. New York: The Free Press.

- This notes the archaeologist's responsibilities to the public.

Koczka, Charles S.

1989 The Need for Enforcing Regulations on the International
Art Trade. In The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property: Whose
Culture? Whose Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger,
pp.185-198. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

1989 Some domestic and international laws and regulations
and their enforcers. Appendix I in The Ethics of Collecting
Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose Property? edited by
Phyllis Mauch Messenger, pp.253-256. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press.

- the author describes US and international laws and regulations
concerning cultural
property, and some of the regulatory bodies involved.

- "Theft, illicit sales, poverty and war are conspiring to rob a
continent of its rich artistic heritage..." Quick jump into some of the
issues, personalities, and emotions that underlie the whole looting
prohblem for heritage pieces in the world of art.

Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C.

1995 review of "Sir Aurel Stein and Was There a Bronze Age Silk
Road?" by Annabel Walker The Review of Archaeology 16(2):1-5.

- During the Second Expedition to Chinese Turkestan, Stein brought
back seven camel loads of cultural treasures, including thousands of
manuscripts, paintings and textiles from the Caves of the Thousand
Buddhas at Tun-huang, China, purchased from a local priest
for 130 pounds sterling and taken without official permission.

- "Looters are ravaging West Bank archaeological sites." With limited ways to earn a living under Israeli restrictions, Palestinians have turned to looting to make a livelihood. Includes lots of pictures.

- "...use of GeoEye and Google Earth imagery to quantitatively assess looting in Ventarron (Lambayeque, Peru) that is one of most important archaeological sites in Southern America. The mapping of areas affected by looting offered the opportunity to investigate such areas not previously systematically documented. To this purpose Ground Penetrating Radar prospections were conducted in some looted sites."

Lazrus, Paula Kay

1995 "Is field survey always non-destructive? Thoughts on survey
and looting in Sardinia". Journal of Field Archaeology 22:131-135.

- From the abstract:
"Archaeologists are not always aware of the ways in which seemingly
innocuous research techniques may result in increased activity on the
part of looters and others involved in the traffic in antiquities."

Legassick, Martin and Ciraj Rassool

2000 Skeletons in the Cupboard: South African Museums and the Trade in
Human Remains, 1907-1917. Cape Town: South African Museum

1995 Ethics code of the American Anthropological
Association and its relevance for SAA. In Ethics in American
Archaeology: Challenges for the 1990's, edited by M.J. Lynott
and A. Wylie, pp. 86-293 Special Report. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

- Levy describes the importance of the American Anthropological
Association code of ethics for archaeology (see link to their Web site below).

Lipe, William D.

1996 In defense of digging: archaeological preservation as a means, not
an end. CRM Magazine 19(5):23-5.

- on federal preservation policies and question of why sites should even
be dug by archaeologists

- Two leading figures in the Society for American Archaeology describe
the newly formed Register of Professional Archaeologists.

Livoti, Sandy (with Jon Kiesa)

1997 Adventures in Stone Artifacts: A Family Guide to
Arrowheads and Other Artifacts. Adventure Publications, Cambridge, MN.

- From the perspective of a collector, this controversial book
details legal issues, discourages excavation, encourages recording and
reporting to government agencies. It includes an interesting note from the
publisher which describes the uproar over its publication.

- Used by people advocating fewer goverment regulations, " The First Treatise attacks patriarchalism in the form of sentence-by-sentence refutation of Robert Filmer's Patriarcha and the Second Treatise outlines a theory of civil society based on natural rights and contract theory."

- "Given the scale of looting and the large output
of unprovenanced objects on the market there can be little doubt that many, if not a majority, of these objects have been recently looted, or recently manufactured. There is thus an argument that unprovanced archaeological objects on the market should be considered to be loot (or fakes) until proven otherwise." (p. 109)

2004 The Scholar and the Market: Swedish Scholarly Contributions to the Destruction of the World's Archaeological Heritage. In Swedish Archaeologists on Ethics edited by Håkan Karlsson. Lindome: Bricoleur Press.
URL: (Lunden2004.pdf)

- Describes how Swedish archaeologists have contributed to the legitimacy of those dealing and collecting looted antiquities.

- This article concerns Jerome Lynn Hall, founder of the Pan-American
Institute of Maritime Archeology and excavator of
shipwrecks in the Dominican Republic, who believes all
treasures found in these wrecks should be given back to
the government and put together in a public research facility.

Lynott, M.J.

1997 Ethical principles and archaeological practice:
development of an ethics policy. American Antiquity
62(4):589-599.

- Lynott, a key figure in the area of archaeological ethics in the
US, discusses the history and development of archaeological
ethics, briefly mentioning SOPA and ROPA, and focusing on
the SAA's Principles of Archaeological Ethics (see links below).

Lynott, M.J. and Vincas P. Steponaitis

1998 Training Students in Archaeological Ethics. Paper prepared for
the SAA workshop on "Enhancing Undergraduate and Graduate Education and Training
in Public Archaeology and Cultural Resource Management" held at Wakulla Springs,
Florida, February 5-8, 1998. Draft of January 4, 1998.

Briefly discusses formal training and professionalism.

Lynott, M.J. and A. Wylie (eds.)

2000 Ethics in American Archaeology 2nd Edition.

- [see first edition notes below below]

1995 Ethics in American Archaeology: Challenges for the
1990's. Special Report. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

- This special report was stimulated by debate over use of data from
looted or commercial contexts.

2003 Archaeology, Conservation, and the Ethics of Sustainability,* in
R. Leventhal and J. Papadopoulos (eds), Theory and Practice in
Mediterranean Archaeology: Old and New World Perspectives. Los Angeles:
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology UCLA. pp.299-308.

-

2002 Objects and Identities: Claiming and Reclaiming the Past, in E.
Barkan and R. Bush (eds) Claiming the Stones/Naming the Bones: Cultural
Property and the Negotiation of National and Ethnic Identity. Los
Angeles: Getty Trust Publications. pp. 116-37.

2008 Performative Regulation: A Case Study in How Powerful People Avoid Criminal Labels The British Journal of Criminology 48:138-153 (2008) (abstract online)

- "explores the role of invested powerful business actors in the criminalization process as applied to the illicit antiquities market... a case study of the precise mechanics of the role played by trade interests in the formation of the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act 2003... illustrates that powerful white-collar criminals, as well as sometimes preventing criminal legislation entering the statute books, can also influence the design of criminal legislation that does enter the statute books in order to protect themselves and their own business interests"

Mackey, Larry A.

1995 "The Art Gerber prosecution: A case study in interstate
trafficking of stolen artifacts". Paper presented at the 60th
Society for American Archaeology Annual Meetings, Minneapolis, May 3-7, 1995.

- This summarizes the Art Gerber Case, involving destruction of a
Hopewell mound in Indiana.

- The author describes a pilot project of a database to distribute
illustrations of
archaeological artifacts to Customs agents to fight the illegal
antiquities trade.

Majd, Mohammad Gholi

2003 The Great American Plunder of Persia's Antiquities, 1925-1941.
Lanham, MD: University Press of America

- "Using recently declassified State Department records, Mohammad Gholi Majd
describes the manner in which the U.S. government had guided and assisted
American museums in acquiring vast quantities of Persian antiquities and
archaeological finds..." (blurb)

- politically charged account with basic assumption that no antiquities should have left Iran for any reason

- "...with Texas locked in a record setting drought, the sinking water levels have turned the lake into something Indiana Jones would love. Texans have recently uncovered 8,000-year-old secrets, reports WFAA Dallas. Both fossils and Native American tools have turned up at Lake Whitney" and this abundance has attracted looters. The article notes there have been 30 arrests, and $30,000 spent on repairs.

Mallouf, Robert J.

1996 An Unraveling Rope: The Looting of America's Past. American Indian
Quarterly 20(2):197-208.

- From the author:
"This article discusses the history of archaeological site looting and
explores the mechanisms through which individuals having a rudimentary
interest in history sometimes evolve a looting mentality. The sometimes
strained relationship between Native Americans and archaeologists caused
by repatriation issues has tended to draw attention away from, and
possibly exacerbate, problems of looting."

- "Egypt's revolution has not only brought political upheaval, but also lucrative opportunities for illegal diggers hunting for antique treasures and gold." While police downplay the problem, looters are hitting many sites, including Luxor and around the Great Pyramids of Giza. "A decline in law and order has been very apparent across the country, with the security forces having lost both the fear and the respect that they had elicited before the events of 2011."

- includes video of Kent Weeks, Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo

Mariam, Haile

2009 The cultural benefits of the return of the Axum Obelisk
in "Return of Cultural Objects: The Athens Conference" MUSEUM International No.241-2

2009 The cultural benefits of the return of the Axum Obelisk
in "Return of Cultural Objects: The Athens Conference" MUSEUM International No.241-2

- includes a PODCAST. "...London tradition of so-called mudlarks who populate the riverbed when the tide is out.... Mudlarks have unearthed all sorts of things in the Thames . from Bronze Age ceremonial objects and 15th-century swords to tiny Roman statuettes and munitions from World War II.... But not everyone is thrilled with the work of the mudlarks. They're allowed to dig roughly 4 feet into the banks of the Thames . and that's angered archaeologists like Paul Barford. He says all that digging has destroyed the centuries-old layers of earth in which artifacts are buried and which helps give them a historical context."

- "A British museum's [Northampton Museum and Art Gallery] decision to sell a 4,400-year old-Egyptian statue for a surprising $27 million... has ignited an uproar in England over the propriety of the sale... a world record at auction for a work of ancient Egyptian art. The statue had been donated to the town in 1880 by the 2d Marquis of Northampton who had purchased it during a trip to Egypt in 1850, long before Egyptian laws, international treaties or British codes and regulations constrained such acquisitions.... While acknowledging the sale was legal, the Egyptian government, British museum officials and some residents of Northampton tried to block it on moral grounds."

- anthropologist studying cultural change in Latin America
tags along with Maya huaqueros looting house mounds; notes use of
agricultural metaphors like "seed", that artifacts are "a gift from
the ancestors", and indigenes "practice looting as an adapative
survival strategy"

rebuttal to "Behind this Door" Article by Elaine Dewar May
1997 Issue of Toronto Life

McAllister, Martin E.

1991 "Looting and vandalism of archaeological resources on federal
and Indian lands in the United States" in Protecting the Past
edited by George S. Smith and John E. Ehrenhard. Boca Raton, Florida:
CRC Press.

McAltister, Martin E., J. Scott Wood, and Dorothy M. Goddard

1984 "Cultural Resource Law Enforcement in the United States
responsibilities to the profession". In Ethics and Values in
Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp. 156-170. New York:
The Free Press.

"Fears that Iraq's heritage will face widespread looting at the end of the Gulf war have been heightened after a group of wealthy art dealers secured a high-level meeting with the US administration."

McGimsey, Charles R., III

1984 The Value of Archaeology. In Ethics and Values in Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp. 171-174. New York: The Free Press.

- responsibilities to the public

McGimsey, Charles R., III

1995 Standards, ethics, and archaeology: a brief history. In
Ethics in American Archaeology: Challenges for the 1990's,
edited by M.J. Lynott and A. Wylie, pp. 11-13. Special
Report. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

- mentions desire for ethical guidelines which led to
founding of SOPA

- "The purpose of this volume is to present a range of perspectives
on issues relating to the ownership and preservation of the artifacts of
past cultures." (p. xix); includes perspectives of the "victims" (Case
Studies), options in the cultural steward question, perceptions and
conditions on cultural property regulations, and a round table on working
out the differences (core of the volume was from a 1986 conference on
ethics of collecting held in Minneapolis, others are from 1987 SAA
Conference in Toronto, and several invited contributions)

- all articles are listed herein

Messenger, Phyllis Mauch

1989 Highlights of a Round Table Discussion and Some Recent
Developments in the Cultural Heritage Arena. In The Ethics of
Collecting Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose Property? edited
by Phyllis Mauch Messenger, pp.217-242. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press.

- round table on working out differences

Meyer, Karl Ernest

1977 The Plundered Past: the Story of the Illegal International Traffic
in Works of Art. Atheneum Press, New York.

- about the illegal trade in art and archaeological objects from
1900 to 1975, and mentions Elgin marbles (and Byron), Boston Museum's Raphael,
Mayan and Etruscan tomb raiders, and collectors such as Leon Pomerance, Norton
Simon, and Thomas Hoving; from Laura Pope Robbins:
"This book is considered the best work on the topic of antiquities
theft and trade for the general reader. It attempts to provide comprehensive
documentation of the destruction and theft of the artifacts of the past.
Within it are several extensive appendixes which include the United States
Antiquity Legislation, a list of major art thefts from 1911-1972, and many
other pieces of pertinent information. An extensive
24-page bibliography is also included."

- from Laura Pope Robbins:
"This source is based upon information received from thieves, receivers,
antique dealers, security agents, auction houses, private collectors, and
journalists, as well as national police forces. It is indexed and makes use of
cross-referencing. There is no bibliography, however, it contains some
bibliographical material on a chapter-by-chapter basis."

- "...authorities are looking at various ways of clamping down on this trade in relics of their nation's history... In some cases, inhabitants of Mexico's poor rural communities come across pieces and decide to sell them to earn extra income. The middlemen who buy the artefacts then offer the goods to private collectors or art traders. But the business is getting increasingly sophisticated, with criminals taking advantage of the lack of supervision of thousands of sites." (the criminals include professional looters)

Mihesuah, Devon A. (ed.)

2000 Repatriation Reader: Who Owns Indian Remains. University of Nebraska Press.

- (from the publisher): "the repatriation of Native American skeletal remains and funerary objects has become a lightning rod for radically opposing views about cultural patrimony and the relationship between Native communities and archaeologists. ... Native Americans and non-Native Americans within and beyond the academic community offer their views on repatriation and the ethical, political, legal, cultural, scholarly, and economic dimensions of this hotly debated issue" (case studies include Kennewick Man and Zuni Ahayu:da)

Miller, G.L.

1992 The second destruction of the Geldermalsen. Historical
Archaeology 26(4):124-131.

- "...In award-winning reporting for the Los Angeles Times, journalists Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino exposed the dramatic story of the Getty's underhanded art dealings led by their former antiquities curator, Marion True."

- The authors report that True is the first curator to be indicted for dealing in stolen antiquities. The morale: it is better to di
splay borrowed treasures on loan from other countries than to own them outright.

1995 Commercialization: beyond the law or above it? Ethics and
the selling of the archaeological record. In Ethics in American
Archaeology: Challenges for the 1990's, edited by M.J. Lynott and A.
Wylie, pp. 38-41. Special Report. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

-

Muscarella, Oscar White

2009 The Fifth Column in the Archaeological Realm: The Great Divide. In Festschrift for Altan Cilingiroglu (Studies in Honour of Altan Cilingiroglu. A life dedicated to Urartu on the shores of the upper sea), edited by Haluk Saglamtimur et al. Istanbul. Pp. 395-406

-

2007 Archaeology and the Plunder Culture. International Journal of the Classical Tradition: 41(1/2): 221-234

-

2000 The Lie Became Great: The Forgery of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures. Groningen: Styx Publications.

- "An important expose of the scholarly and museum "forgery culture," which tacitly condones the looting of ancient sites and the fabrication of contexts for the objects acquired."

1977-78 Publications about OWM testifying before The United States Senate on May 12, May 24, 1977, and January 26, 1978 (for attendance see: Archaeology 30, 1977: 279; Journal of Field Archaeology 5, 1978: 98-100

-

1978 "Antiquities Legislation Debate" Archaeology 31: 60-61

- "note contra André Emerich"

1977 'Ziwiye' and Ziwiye: the forgery of a provenience.
Journal of Field Archaeology 4:196-219.

1993 Project Sting: The latest tactic in the war on illegal
artifact trading is paying off in federal convictions and a
flood of information about dealers and their clients.
Archaeology 46(5):52-59

- police action taken against archaeological looting

New Zealand Archaeological Association

1993 Code of Ethics, New Zealand Archaeological Association.
Archaeology in New Zealand. 36(4):183

-

Newbert, David DeTar

1998 Selling counterfeits is a Crime. Prehistoric American 32(3):25.

- collector's view on fakes

Nichols, Deborah L, Anthony L. Klesert, and Roger Anyon

1989 Ancestral Sites, Shrines, and Graves: Native American Perspectives
on the Ethics of Collecting Cultural Properties. In The Ethics of Collecting
Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch
Messenger, pp.27-38. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

- case studies of "victim's perspectives"

Nickens, Paul R.

1991 "The destruction of archaeological sites and data" in
Protecting the Past edited by George S. Smith and John E.
Ehrenhard. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.

-

Niezen, Ronald

2000 Spirit Wars: Native North American Religions in the Age of Nation Building. Berkeley: University of California Press. More information: http://www.aesonline.org/209.

- from the publisher: "...an accessible, concise survey of the disruption and dispossession of the religious life of North American indigenous peoples caused by Euro-American domination"... (includes a chapter called 'The Collectors')

Norskov, V.

2002 Greek Vases in New Contexts: The Collecting and Trading of
Greek Vases: An Aspect of the Modern Reception of Antiquity. Aarhus:
Aarhus University Press.

- "Yale University agrees to return to Peru hundreds of artifacts from the Incan site of Machu Picchu. The objects have been at the center of a debate that has lasted almost a century [since they were excavated by archaeologist Hiram Bingham], and culminated last year when the government of Peru threatened to sue Yale to get the artifacts back." The National Geograhic Society encouraged Yale's Peabody Museum to return the artifacts after notes were discovered that showed Yale considere dthem to be owned by Peru.

- "...the Denver Museum of Nature and Science says it has devised a way to return the 30 vigango it received as donations in 1990 from two Hollywood collectors, the actor Gene Hackman and the film producer Art Linson...." to the National Museums of Kenya

- from Laura Pope Robbins:
"This source focuses on the plunder of Indian religious artifacts. It discusses
the psychological aspects of antique collectors who use illegal means to add to
their collections and the psychological impact on the culture that loses its
artifacts. Preventive measures are also discussed. There are three appendices
which include the "Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the
Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property" adopted
by the UN in 1970, reprints from newspapers and periodicals, and a table
illustrating the acceptance of the UN's convention by 65 states. The index is
not cross-referenced and is very short. This source also contains many
illustrations of artifacts that have been stolen and mutilated."

Parezo, Nancy J. and Don D. Fowler

Archaeological records preservation: an ethical obligation.
In Ethics in American Archaeology: Challenges
for the 1990's, edited by M.J. Lynott and A. Wylie, pp. 50-
55. Special Report. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

1991 And the loot goes on: winning some battles but not the
war. Journal of Field Archaeology 18:89-95.

- increased value of antiquities has lead to looting of more
archaeological sites

Pendergast, David M. and Elizabeth Graham

1989 The Battle for the Maya Past: The Effects of International Looting
and Collecting in Belize. In The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property:
Whose Culture? Whose Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger,
pp.51-60. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

- dredging to improve the Tangasseri harbour complex uncovered an "amazing array of antique artefacts" including Chinese coins, and have "triggered a treasure hunt". Artifacts have been sold for scrap and then immediately resold, and rumors of incoming antique dealers are discouraging finders from stepping forward

- Nice summary of current state of public/media/local government sentiments in much of the US with almost half of the public feeling it is ok to loot public and private lands for personal gain. Mentions conviction of James Redd and James Shrader in US Four Corners.

Perino, Gregory

1993 Points & Barbs. Central States Archaeological
Journal 40(1): 49

- comments on professionalism and collecting, also see letters in response in CSAJ 1993 49(2): 59 & 67 by Paul Rubenstein for Corps of Engineers; by Jay Clark (avocationalist); and in CSAJ 1993 40(4): 160-1 by Wayne Porter

- [paraphrased from site] ...the former Director-General of Iraqi Museums and keynote speaker at The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival, May 2008, recalls the events of April 2003 when the Iraq Museum was badly vandalized after American forces entered Baghdad. He describes the damage inflicted there as well as to other Iraqi cultural heritage institutions and sites and emphasizes the importance of these events to all of humanity.

- "What you will not typically be told, or maybe you prefer not to know, is that most local 'Indian relics' preserved in university labs, museum display cases, private collections, and tourist attractions were taken from inside graves."

- "The Indian leader Goyathlay, popularly known as Geronimo, died in captivity and was buried at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1909. This fact about his death is generally agreed upon. But the current location of his skull and where his remains should be buried are matters of a longtime and acrimonious dispute, and now a lawsuit that pits tribe against tribe, and the descendants of the man whom Teddy Roosevelt showed off in his 1905 Inaugural Parade against Yale’s most exclusive private club."

- "The Huntington's copies of key Nazi papers are a historical prize whose own history needs to be officially cleaned up."

Plog, Fred

1984 The Ethics of Excavation: Site Selection. In Ethics
and Values in Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp.
89-96. New York: The Free Press.

- responsibilities to the profession

Pokotylo, David

1999 Public Opinion and Archaeological Heritage: Views from
Outside the Profession. American Antiquity 64(3): 400-eoa.

- public views of archaeology and heritage

Polk, Milbry and Angela M.H. Schuster (eds.)

2005 The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia. Harry N. Abrams

- from Publisher's Weekly: "Over 12 chapters, varied contributors lightly detail the depth and breadth of the collection, presenting highlights in 284 illustrations (most in color) from the collection as it was, with some asides about pieces that have been "reported missing" or are otherwise no longer there.... [but] With its lack of a unified perspective and the inclusion of previously published material, the book has a quickly-stitched-together feel."

- (from back cover) "Professor Renfrew reviews some prominent recent
scandals...The illicit antiquities trade has turned London along with
other international centres into a 'thieves' kitchen' where greed triumphs
over serious appreciation of the past. Unless a solution is found to this
ethical crisis in archaeology, our record of the past will be vastly
diminished. The book lays bare the misunderstanding and hypocrisy that
underlie that crisis."

Renfrew, Colin

1993 Collectors are the real looters.
Archaeology 46(3):16-17

- response to Ricardo Elia, Archaeology Jan-Feb 1993
review of his book (reprinted in 1996 - see above):
Ricardo Elia's stance was that looting is caused by the market
created by collectors, scholars, and museums. Renfrew feels that
collectors cause more harm than scholars and museums since their
purpose is pleasure rather than education.

- when the Tennessee Valley Authority lowers water levels in the river system to make room for winter rainfall, public lands will become exposed to looters who illegally frequent areas adjacent to known archaeological sites -- "When the water goes down, "the world's largest Easter egg hunt" begins, in the words of Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge reserve officer Jason Vehrs."

- from the publisher: "details the disasters that have befallen Iraq's cultural heritage, analyzes why all efforts to protect it have failed, and identifies new mechanisms and strategies to prevent the mistakes of Iraq from being replicated in other war-torn regions."

Roxan, David and Ken Wanstall

1965 The Rape of Art: The Story of Hitler's Plunder of the Great Masterpieces of Europe.
New York: Coward-McCann, Inc.

-

Royal Academy of Arts

1995 "Africa: the art of a continet": the dilemma of display
African Arts 28(4):59.

- about looting of Mali's cultural artifacts and problems of
a museum displaying antiquities

Rush, Laurie

2012 Working with the military to protect archaeological sites and other forms of cultural property. World Archaeology 44(3) September: 359-377

- from the abstract... "It is essential to educate military personnel to prevent inadvertent damage to museums, works of art, archaeological sites, sacred places and other forms of cultural property. It is also critical that military strategists and planners take cultural property into consideration as they prepare for 'no-strike' listing and all possible operations."

2009 The reunification of the Kwakwaka'wakw mask with its cultural soul.
In "Return of Cultural Objects: The Athens Conference" MUSEUM International No.241-2

-

Sassoon, David

1989 Considering the Perspective of the Victim: The Antiquities of
Nepal. In The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property: Whose Culture?
Whose Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger, pp.61-72.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

- A number of chapters describe the theft of Africa's cultural heritage.

Schuster, A. M. H.

1997 The Search for Site Q. Archaeology 50(5): 42-45

Schuster, A. M. H.

1997 A run for their lives. Archaeology 50(5): 47

Scovazzi, Tullio

2009 Legal aspects of the Axum Obelisk case.
In "Return of Cultural Objects: The Athens Conference" MUSEUM International No.241-2

-

Seligman, Thomas K.

1989 The Murals of Teotihuacan: A Case Study of Negotiated Restitution.
In The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose
Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger, pp.73-84. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press.

- examines what groups are responsible for encouraging
the antiquities market, including museums

Shanks, H.

1996 Magnificent obsession. Biblical Archaeology Review
22(3): 22-64.

- about a collector and his large private collection

Shapiro, Daniel

1995 The ban on Mali's antiquities: a matter of law.
African Arts 28(4):42-51.

- The US ban on the import of Mali's antiquities is ineffective
because it does not prevent purchase by countries who do not
follow the Convention. Practical steps to protect cultural
property must address the various interests involved.

Shestack, Alan

1989 The Museum and Cultural Property: The Transformation of
Institutional Ethics. In The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property:
Whose Culture? Whose Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger,
pp.93-102. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

- Large-scale looting in Mali threatens their cultural patrimony
and the potential to understand the area's history. International
trade that encourages this problem is complex, including locals
and networks of distributors. The public must become more
sensitive to the value of this heritage.

- "The problem of looted ancient jewelry, which is most of the ancient jewelry available for study today, and the poor scholarship that has resulted from the study of these objects in the absence of their archaeological context."

1997 The Spoils of War--World War II and Its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property. New York: Abrams.

- "A comprehensive publication of the 1995 symposium of the same name, which includes a wide variety of articles pertaining to the looting that took place as a result of WW II; the Soviet trophy brigades; the controversy of "Priam's Treasure," taken out of Turkey by Schliemann and now in Russia; as well as 17 legal appendices relating to looting issues and the protection of cultural property."

1996 Making Representations: Museums in the Post-Colonial Era.
London; New York: Routledge.

The author: "the text deals with cultural politics in museums, including
repatriation issues and the establishment of indigenous and community museums,
and covers developments in USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand".

- "Steven Shaffer has been charged in America with the very rare felony of “removing an object of antiquity” and will stand trial later this year, facing a possible five year sentence. Although such a charge generally involves a small item such as a goblet, this case concerns something significantly larger: an eight-ton boulder that Shaffer is accused of removing from the bottom of a river running between Kentucky and Ohio." [called "Indian Head Rock"; also see Fred Kight article]

Smith, George S., John E. Ehrenhard (editors)

1991 Protecting the Past. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.

includes the following (listed separately):
"The destruction of archaeological sites and data" by Paul R. Nickens
"Some dimensions of the pothunting problem" by Thomas F. King
"Looting and vandalism of archaeological resources on federal and Indian
lands in the United States" by Martin E. McAllister

Society for American Archaeology

1996 Society for American Archaeology principles of archaeological ethics. American Antiquity 61(3): 451-452.

- SAA establishes its own code of ethics and standards (links to Web pages follow)

- "Chinese archaeologists have raised a merchant ship which sank in the South China Sea 800 years ago while transporting a cargo of precious porcelain. ... China has invested about $40m in this project, in the hope of reclaiming a part of the country's history, and this time ensuring it stays in Chinese hands."

- "Backyard treasure hunters beware. A little-known Oregon statute makes it illegal for anyone to intentionally unearth artifacts more than 75 years old without a permit from the state — even on private property."

- poses the classic debate in economc terms, rather than 'looter' versus 'professional'; some commercial practitioners are cast as "capitalist arcaheologists" in contrast with government-employed "socialist archaeologists"

Stamatoudi, Irini

2009 Mediation and cultural diplomacy.
In "Return of Cultural Objects: The Athens Conference" MUSEUM International No.241-2

- From the publisher: "A chronicle of the search for the truth about the life and death of a legendary Native American. This absorbing new portrait of Ishi, wild man of Deer Creek, museum curiosity, and last of his tribe, will appeal to anyone interested in Native America, a story of science and scandal, and the life and legend of California's most famous Indian." (Ishi's brain was sent to the Smithsonian in 1916 where it was preserved in formaldehyde for their collection of human remains.)

- "The archaeological sites of Iraq, precious for their bearing on human history, became especially vulnerable to looters during two wars. Much of the looting evidence has been anecdotal up to now, but here satellite imagery has been employed to show which sites were looted and when."

Stuart, George E.

1989 Working Together to Preserve Our Past. In The Ethics
of Collecting Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose Property?
edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger, pp.243-252. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press.

- round table on working out differences

Sturgis, Sue

2009 Alabama city destroying ancient Indian mound for Sam's Club. Facing South: The Online Magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies. August 4, 2009

- "City leaders in Oxford, Ala. have approved the destruction of a 1,500-year-old Native American ceremonial mound and are using the dirt as fill for a new Sam's Club, a retail warehouse store operated by Wal-Mart. ...But Oxford Mayor Leon Smith -- whose campaign has financial connections to firms involved in the $2.6 million no-bid project -- insists the mound is not man-made and was used only to 'send smoke signals'."

- also note the extensive reader discussion and commentary

Swanson, Charles R., Neil C. Chamelin, and Leonard Territo,

1992 Criminal Investigation 5th edition. NY: McGraw-Hill.

Robert Hicks
"The chapter on the looting of archeological sites
contains the best published guide on investigative methods for law
enforcement officers that I know of."

- This blog entry discusses how white collar criminals avoid being labeled as criminals, correlating Jose Canseco's sports drug-use story with the theft and display of artifacts by museums, citing a 2007 legal case study by Mackenzie and Green

- This novel/textbook tells parallel stories of Çatalhöyük (Neolithic village life and modern excavation), touching on archaeological politics and the forgery and illegal trading of antiquities, as well as exposes the conflict between the serious business of an archaeological excavation and the public fascination with unusual artifacts.

- "...The National Museum was celebrating the return of about 2,000 artifacts that had been smuggled into Britain over the years of war in Afghanistan. British authorities confiscated the smuggled items and, after several years spent figuring out where the artifacts had come from, sent them back to Afghanistan in February."

Tay, Alice Erh Soon

1985 "Law and the cultural heritage".
in Who owns the past? : papers from the annual symposium
of the Australian Academy of the Humanities edited by Isabel
McBryde, pp. 107-138. New York: Oxford University Press.

- addresses legal issues surrounding ownership of cultural
artifacts, with international coverage of laws such as "Treasure
Trove" and property rights

Thorleifsen, Daniel

2009 The repatriation of Greenland's cultural heritage.
In "Return of Cultural Objects: The Athens Conference" MUSEUM International No.241-2

- "...A brutal plundering of this rich cultural heritage has been taking place in broad daylight ever since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. These days Ancient Mesopotamia looks more like a scene from the movie Holes." The article notes the extent of the catastrophe and the failure of the US government and military to prevent or contain the problem, and mentions Babylon, Samarra, & Umm al-Aqarib; includes a short slideshow

We brought not a relic from Ephesus! After gathering up fragments of sculptured marbles and breaking ornaments from the interior work of the Mosques; and after bringing them at a cost of infinite trouble and fatigue, five miles on muleback to the railway depot, a government officer compelled all who had such things to disgorge! He had an order from Constantinople to look out for our party, and see that we carried nothing off. It was a wise, a just, and a well-deserved rebuke, but it created a sensation...

2012 The Illicit Trade in Art and Antiquities: International recovery and criminal and civil liability.Hart Publishing

- "This text focuses upon the extent to which laws can protect vulnerable countries and considers what further steps could be taken in the future." It focuses upon UK, European, and international law, but there is some discussion of US law too.

1976 Convention on the means of prohibiting and preventing the
illicit import, export, and transfer of cultural property. Journal of
Field Archaeology 3:217-220.

- the famous "1970 Convention" which protests illicit trade in
antiquities etc.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

1992 Vandalism: Research, Prevention and Social Policy.
General Technical Report PNW-GTR-293. U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Robert Hicks
"Perhaps not the most useful publication for deriving investigative
strategies for law enforcement officers, this pub nevertheless has
insightful articles about vandalism, incl. at least one on vandalism of
rock art."

- "In a ruling rejecting any claims to the "spoils of war," New York's highest court concluded Thursday that an ancient gold tablet must be returned to the German museum that lost it in World War II. The Court of Appeals unanimously agreed that Riven Flamenbaum's estate is not entitled to the 3,000-year-old Assyrian relic, a 9.5-gram (0.34-ounce) tablet smaller than a credit card...."

Vitelli, Karen D.

1981 The ethics of collecting: afterthoughts on the
responsibilities of archaeologists. Journal of Field
Archaeology 8:88-89.

-

Vitelli, Karen D.

1981 "Editorial Note" American Journal of Archaeology 85:343.

- AIA editors resolve not to publish reviews of books based on
artifacts acquired in contravention of UNESCO 1970 convention

Vitelli, Karen D.

1982 Antiquity assets. Journal of Field Archaeology
9:274-276.

-

Vitelli, Karen D.

1984 The International Traffic in Antiquities: Archaeological Ethics and the Archaeologist's Responsibility. In Ethics and Values in Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp. 143-155. New York: The Free Press.

- responsibilities to the profession

Vitelli, Karen D.

1996 Archaeological Ethics. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.

- collection of Archaeology Magazine articles written for a general audience on archaeological ethics
(looting, reburial, repatriation issues), plus summaries, discussion questions, suggestions for further reading, and a resource
guide should make this a useful teaching tool

1987 The Future of the Past in Latin America. Journal of Field Archaeology. 14: 107-110

Warren, Karen J.

1989 A Philosophical Perspective on the Ethics and Resolution of Cultural
Property Issues. In The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property: Whose
Culture? Whose Property? edited by Phyllis Mauch Messenger, pp.1-26.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

1995 Accountability: respondibilities of archaeologists to
other interest groups. In Ethics in American Archaeology: Challenges
for the 1990's, edited by M.J. Lynott and A. Wylie, pp. 33-37.
Special Report. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

1999 Replicas, Fakes, and Art: The Twentieth Century Stone Age and its Effects on Archaeology. American Antiquity 64(2):203-214. Reprinted 2000 in The Arkansas Archaeologist 39:19-30 (1998 issue).

- markets, collecting, modern knappers

Wildesen, Leslie E.

1984 The Search for an Ethic in Archaeology: An Historical Perspective. In Ethics and Values in Archaeology, edited by Ernestene L. Green, pp. 3-12. New York: The Free Press.

- background to ethics question

Wilson, David

1985 "Return and restitution: a museum perspective".
in Who owns the past? : papers from the annual symposium
of the Australian Academy of the Humanities edited by Isabel
McBryde, pp. 99-106. New York: Oxford University Press.

- from the article:
"The purpose of this short paper is to put the case of the
great international museums against claims for the return or
'restitution' of cultural property."

- collection of papers about current ethical issues in North
American archaeology

Wylie, Alison

1995 Archaeology and the antiquities market: the use of
"looted" data. In Ethics in American Archaeology: Challenges
for the 1990's, edited by M.J. Lynott and A. Wylie, pp. 17-
21. Special Report. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

- ethical questions regarding use of date from looted sites
or commercial excavations

- four examples show how entanglement of professional and
commercial activities have made clear distinction between
scientific and non-scientific archaeology difficult; thorough
discussion of issues raised about use of data from looted or
commercial contexts in research and publication

Wylie, Alison

1997 Contextulaizing ethics: comments on ethics in Canadian
archaeology by Robert Rosenswig Journal of Canadian Archaeology
21:115-120

- "...even as residents of Blanding have joined in grief, the circumstances of Dr. Redd's death have shocked this tidy little town and threatened the delicate cross-cultural balance here that he helped preserve. Dr. Redd, 60, was found dead of a suicide a day after federal prosecutors charged him, his wife and 22 others with stealing, selling and trading Indian artifacts from the ancestral lands that stretch out from here in every direction."
"Many whites say Blanding, which had been raided before, has been unfairly singled out in a region where universities and museums once paid residents to dig up artifacts. Residents, including Mr. Carroll, often grew up collecting objects as a hobby and still stumble upon arrowheads. (Mr. Carroll said he stopped collecting more than 30 years ago.) Many expressed outrage that residents were being portrayed as “grave robbers."

Yates, Donna

2006 South America on the Block : the changing face of pre-Columbian antiquities auctions in response to international law. Thesis (Mphil). Cambridge: Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge.

1995 Regaining our nerve: ethics, values, and the transformation
of archaeology. In Ethics in American Archaeology: Challenges
for the 1990's, edited by M.J. Lynott and A. Wylie, pp. 64-
67. Special Report. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.

- Focus is on professional obligations to conserve the archaeological record; to inform and collaborate with diverse publics, and to deal fairly with others. Some chapters recount personal experiences with conflicting moral issues, others evaluate controversial practices. Included are new obligations; e.g. the role archaeologists can play in reducing Third World by turning sites into sustainable, local economic resources by attracting tourism or at least sustaining long-term field projects.

"The [Act] is offered to assist tribal leaders and attorneys when a
Tribe desires to protect itself and its people by taking control of research
conducted on its Reservation. It may be copied, adapted, and adopted freely.
The appendices can also serve as stand-alone documents in the case of tribes
that have not adopted legislation like this Act."

Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) strengthened the
permitting procedures required for conducting archeological fieldwork
on federal lands, originally mandated by the Antiquities Act, and also
establishes more rigorous fines and penalties for unauthorized excavation
on federal land

Archaeological and Historical Preservation Act of 1974 (AHPA)
(or Moss-Bennett Act, or Archaeological Data Preservation Act) fights
to preserve archeological resources during development, but it is broader
in scope, calling for the "preservation of historical and archeological data
(including relics and specimens) which might otherwise be irreparably lost
or destroyed as the result of "any federal construction project or federally
licensed activity or program."

National Historic Sites Act of 1935
"This Act declares it a federal policy to preserve historic and prehistoric areas of national significance and establishes the National Historic Landmarks program. It also empowers the Secretary of the Interior to "secure, collate, and preserve drawings, plans, photographs, and other data of historic and archeologic sites, buildings, and objects."

Museum Properties Management Act of 1955
"This Act authorized the Secretary of the Interior through the National Park Service to preserve the objects found in individual national parks and provide public access to those materials through museums. The Act, as amended in 1996, gives the NPS legal authority to "acquire collections through donations and purchase and to loan and and exchange collections."

Loss/Theft Reporting Sites:

- "...the world's largest private international database of lost and stolen art, antiques and collectibles that provides
recovery and search services to collectors, the art trade, insurers and law enforcement through technology and a professionally
trained staff of art historians"

- "A think tank that uses interdisciplinary research and analysis techniques to examine the phenomenon of art crime
through history and across national borders in order to better protect cultural heritage."

- this site preserves "the legacy of the unprecedented and heroic work of the men and women who served in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section, known as Monuments Men, during World War II", and provides information about items looted by the Nazis, as well as ways to report finds

- "... help victims of theft to publicize loss... sent to subscribing police forces and recovery agencies... sent dealers to help avoid buying stolen items... used by auctioneers (Sotheby's, Gaze and Railton) to check lots"

Controlled excavation at Montezuma Village, Monticello, Utah, one of the largest privately owned archaeological sites in the United States sponsored by the landowners due to threat of extensive erosion.

- "All excavations are conducted in accordance with applicable state and Federal laws pertaining to cultural remains and/or burials. Fees for excavation follow two structures. The first option allows the individual to legally retain the artifacts for private ownership. The second option allows the artifacts to remain in the Ransdell collection for display in their on-site museum facility."

- "A national, non-profit organization formed in 1980 to identify,
acquire, and permanently preserve the most significant archaeological
sites in the United States" by buying up the land they lie on...

- Dedicated to "helping the victims of art theft", this is the "largest
private database of stolen and missing works of art, antiques and valuables
in the world". Stolen items are registered and ideally later recovered by
responsible agencies using their information.

- From their Web site: "high-technology solutions to the problem of
tracking down lost and stolen Art and Antiques". The project works at ways
to uniformly describe stolen and recovered artifacts, as well as to link
databases internationally.

- "...has been established in response to concerns expressed about the
loss to our knowledge of the past caused by the illicit excavation of
archaeological sites." Its goals are to elevate public awareness, encourage
new legislation and codes of conduct, monitor the sale and transfer of illicit
antiquities, and develop an overview of existing legislation. Included are
their journal, Culture Without Context, and daily updates
of the illicit trade news.

- "The purpose of this website, which offers all its services free of
charge, is twofold: to collect and disseminate information about incidents and
trade involving stolen cultural property" and "to offer a source of related
information, e.g., publications, security products, safety and salvage plans,
addresses of and links to related organizations."

- "A report from 10 European countries which have been affected by art
looting during and after WW II... published by the German Coordination Office
of the Federal States for the the Return of Cultural Property."

Standing Committee on Ethics"Our formal charge is promoting discussion and education about ethical
issues in archaeology, and proposing revisions, as necessary, of the
Principles of Archaeological Ethics. The committee is not charged with
enforcement powers or responsibilities."

The committee will sponsor a thrice yearly feature section in the
SAA Bulletin, starting in
Volume16, called "From the Ethics Committee".

- from Laura Pope Robbins:
"STOP is a newly founded nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.
At present, it is organizing several different services which will include
a lecture series; a research library; a referal program that will link
victims of art crimes with detectives, appraisers, and insurance companies;
an on-line database of pre-1987 auction house records; and a BBS where
people can post questions, concerns, and converse with others concerned
with art theft."

- from Laura Pope Robbins:
"This site is meant to help "combat international Garden Statuary and
Architectural Antique crime" by alerting dealers and providing them with
information that will lead to the interception of stolen items. It is a
wonderful site which gives information on the place and date of theft, a
description of the item, a Crime Reference Number, and who to contact. It also
includes a note which lists the source of the original information. It is
extremely current."

- Free reporting of theft and recovery of objects. Searchable database includes Indian artifacts, as well as more traditional antiques and collectibles. Education section contains information on theft prevention, appraisals, and auctions. Registered users can be notified of thefts in specific subject and geographic areas. [as listed by lii.org]

- from Laura Pope Robbins:
"This site is dedicated to the report of thefts, forgeries, and counterfeits.
The reports are garnered from stores, manufacturers, and individuals. In this
case, the reports are not dedicated specifically to antiquities, but rather to
collectibles of any sort."

Codes of Ethics:

- Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at the Illinois
Institute of Technology provides an online index of the official codes of
ethics for more than 850 professional societies, corporations, government
agencies, and academic institutions worldwide

The Society for American Archaeology has long recognized that the buying and selling of objects out of archaeological context is contributing to the destruction of the archaeological record on the American continents and around the world. The commercialization of archaeological objects - their use as commodities to be exploited for personal enjoyment or profit - results in the destruction of archaeological sites and of contextual information that is essential to understanding the archaeological record. Archaeologists should therefore carefully weigh the benefits to scholarship of a project against the costs of potentially enhancing the commercial value of archaeological objects. Whenever possible they should discourage, and should themselves avoid, activities that enhance the commercial value of archaeological objects, especially objects that are not curated in public institutions, or readily available for scientific study, public interpretation, and display.

Bob Edwards discusses Archaeological Institute of America's request to the US Department of Defense to plan for the
protection of Iraqi heritage during any upcoming war. Mentioned is the fear of looting that may accompany the collapse of civil authority.
(http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_978050.html
transcript)

2002 Bob Ballard. NPR Talk of the Nation Dec 2

Neal Conan interviews underwater explorer Bob Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic, ancient Roman wrecks, and PT 109. Includes comments on differences between archaeology and salvage, as well as legalities.
(audio file RealAudio

2001 Sicily Art Theft. NPR All Things Considered Mar 29

Sylvia Poggioli reports that under an agreement signed recently by the United States and Italy, American art dealers and collectors must now prove that Italian antiquities they import have not been looted or stolen. Archeologists say stolen Italian artifacts have been supplying the art market for more than two centuries. Italian investigators have tracked down ancient Greek treasures looted from Morgantina, in central Sicily, to Manhattan and they are negotiating for their return. [mentions Italian Art Theft Squad and "tombaroli"]
(transcript
RealAudio - 7:00).

2000 Portrait of Wally. NPR Morning Edition Aug 31

"David D'Arcy reports on the dispute over ownership of a painting that the
Nazis took from a Jewish art dealer in 1938 Vienna. Portrait of Wally, by Egon
Schiele has been on loan to the Museum of Modern Art for the last two-and-a-half
years. A federal judge ruled that the painting cannot be considered "stolen"
because the American military returned it to the Austrian government in 1945.
The Justice Department is asking the judge to reverse his ruling. The case has
implications for the families of Holocaust victims, who are trying to recover
art and other property that was looted by the Nazis."
RealAudio recording

2000 War Loot. NPR All Things Considered (April 18, 2000)

David D'Arcy reports: "The Cleveland Museum of Art today posted more than 300 works in its
collection with dubious origins. The culture minister of Germany was in
New York today to
talk, in part, about war loot after his country posted thousands of unclaimed
objects it still holds on a Website. David D'Arcy reports on what US museums
are and are *not* doing to return works to their owners."
RealAudio
recording

1999 WWII Stolen Property Trial. NPR Morning Edition May 25

David D'Arcy reports that a Russian woman is on trial in New York City
federal court for trafficking in stolen property.
(transcript
RealAudio - 6:44).

1998 Italians Want Stolen Art Returned. NPR Morning Edition June 24

David D'Arcy reports on the efforts by the Italian
government to retrieve stolen works of art
(transcript
RealAudio - 6:53).

1998 Elgin Marbles NPR Morning Edition June 23

Michael Goldfarb reports that Greece is calling for
the return of the Elgin marbles -- statues that originally adorned the
Parthenon in Athens -- following recent reports that the British Museum
damaged the statues sixty years ago while cleaning them.
(transcript
RealAudio - 3:41)

1998 Who Owns Art? Talk of the Nation, 19 Feb, hour two.
National Public Radio (NPR).

Ray Suarez:
"A half century after World War II the debate over the ownership and
movement of art and artifacts, during war and in peacetime, wages on.
Government officials are currently struggling to balance the interests
of the families of Holocaust victims and the interests of the current
owners of a painting or sculpture. Join Ray Suarez and guests for a
look at the ongoing battle over the ownership of cultural property."
(Real Audio
transcript)

From the page: "This course examines a number of issues relating to the
study, interpretation, presentation and conservation of the past which are
becoming more and more important in an increasingly politicized global
environment."

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